Gaming with Windows Vista: Playing Games Through the Games Explorer

Mark Edward Soper describes Windows Vista's "home base" for games, Games Explorer, which provides a dedicated folder for viewing and accessing installed games, allows different ways to classify and organize games, and controls access to games by rating and by user.

This chapter is from the book

For the first time, Windows games have a real home base on the Windows
desktop, thanks to the brand-new Games Explorer. Although previous versions of
Windows featured a Games folder on the Start button, there was no mechanism
built into Windows to require games to use the Games folder for startup, no way
to control game access by ESRB ratings, and no way to organize saved games to
make it easy to pick up a game where you left off. Games Explorer changes all
that in a variety of ways:

It provides a dedicated folder for viewing and accessing installed games.

It features various ways to classify and organize games.

It enables families to control access to games by rating and by user.

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By default, Windows Vista Business edition doesn’t display games.
However, the feature isn’t missing from the Windows installation, but is
merely disabled. To enable or disable games, open Control Panel, Programs, and
the Programs and Features applet. Select the Turn Windows Features On and Off
task from the task pane (this feature is protected by User Account Control). To
display all games included with your Windows edition, click the Games check box.
To enable or disable certain games included with Windows, expand the Games
category and clear (to disable) or check (to enable) the games listed. Click OK
to close the dialog and accept changes.

After additional games are installed, the Games Explorer on a typical system
resembles Figure 10.1. However, the exact collection of games provided with
Windows Vista depends on the edition of Windows Vista you’re using: Home
Premium and Ultimate editions include nine games, whereas Home Basic (which does
not support the 3D Aero interface) does not include the 3D Chess Titans and
Mahjong Titans games shown in Figure 10.1. The Hold ‘Em game shown in
Figure 10.1 is a Windows Vista Ultimate Extra, available (via download) only to
Vista Ultimate edition users.

Although the Games Explorer features the same Preview and Details pane
options (enabled by default) as other Explorer views and a wide variety of views
from Extra Large Icons to Details, the Games Explorer is customized for the
needs of PC gamers:

The default layout’s Preview pane displays the system’s
current Windows Experience Index (WEI) base score when no game
is selected or the selected game’s WEI score and ESRB rating (if
available).

For more information about common Explorer features, see Chapter 5,
"Vista Tools for Faster and Better File Organization."

To learn more about Performance Information and the Windows Experience Index,
see "Performance Information and Tools," Chapter 6, p. 129.

NOTE

The Entertainment Soft ware Rating Board (ESRB) is a nonprofit,
self-regulatory organization that rates console and PC games. You can learn more
about ESRB and its rating system at
http://www.esrb.org.

The Details pane displays the game publisher, developer, version number,
and genre.

The Details view displays the last date the game was played, the product
version, the publisher, the developer, the ESRB rating, game restrictions, and
content descriptions.

The Options button enables you to configure the Games folder. Options
include downloading information about installed games, listing the most-recently
played games, clearing gaming history, and unhiding games.

The Tools menu provides links to a variety of Windows features to
configure the computer and enhance game play.

The Parental Controls button opens the Parental Controls feature,
enabling you to control access to games by user and by ESRB rating.

For more information about using Parental Controls, see "Using Parental
Controls," Chapter 14, p. 333.

NOTE

To hide a game, right-click it and select Hide This Game. Hiding a game is
useful for eliminating duplicate entries or games you don’t want to play
right now (but don’t want to uninstall, either).

Adding Games to Games Explorer

As you install additional games on your system, Games Explorer may
automatically update to show them, or it may be necessary to manually add
shortcuts for some games.

A game that’s fully compatible with Games Explorer displays the
game’s ESRB rating, the WEI rating recommended for the game, the WEI
rating required to play the game, and the system’s current WEI
rating).

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You can restrict particular users from playing a game, even if Games Explorer
doesn’t recognize its ESRB rating, by using Parental Control’s Allow
and Block Specific Programs feature. See Chapter 14, "Protecting Windows
Vista," for details.

A game that’s partly compatible with Games Explorer displays the
game’s ESRB rating (see Figure 10.2). However, it’s up to you to
determine how well it works with your system (many games from major vendors
produced during the last few years fall into this category).

Some games, such as games without ESRB ratings, games bundled with hardware,
and free demos (such as those provided on the MaximumPC CD) may ignore Games
Explorer. You can add these games to Games Explorer by dragging the game’s
shortcut into each user’s Games Explorer. However, they won’t
display any additional information, and you can’t restrict play by ESRB
rating (see Figure 10.2).

To learn more about DirectX Diagnostics, see the Note on p. 257, this chapter.

Games for Windows and Games Explorer Compatibility

Games that are specifically designed for Windows Vista include a Game
Definition File (GDF), which is XML metadata that provides the thumbnail used in
Games Explorer, the ESRB rating, and, when available, the recommended and
required WEI rating for the game. The GDF and the bitmap used to identify the
game must be embedded into the game’s executable file. Consequently, a
game vendor must write the game specifically for Windows Vista or create a game
patch for an older game that incorporates these features.

Microsoft, in cooperation with other major PC gaming vendors (ATARI,
LucasArts, Midway, Turbine, 2K Games, THQ, and others), has introduced the Games
for Windows brand. Games for Windows feature packaging with the Games for
Windows banner across the top of the box (reminiscent of the Xbox 360’s
packaging, but using a white background). Games for Windows are designed for
Windows XP and Vista only (including 64-bit editions) and feature easy
installation, support for 1280x720 and 1152x720 widescreen displays, support for
the Xbox 360 common controller (for games that use controllers), support for
launching from Media Center, support for DirectX 9’s Direct3D (if the game
uses Direct3D), and compatibility with Games Explorer (including parental
controls). For more details, see
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ bb173456.aspx.

Games listed in the Games for Windows catalog (available at
http://www.gamesforwindows.com)
will automatically be added to the Games Explorer. However, depending on the
game, WEI information might not be available.

Games that contain ESRB ratings may automatically add themselves to Games
Explorer, even if they are several years old.

Working with ESRB Ratings

As Figure 10.1 shows, many recent games include ESRB ratings. If Games
Explorer displays the rating, the rating is visible in the Preview pane when you
select the game. To see the ratings for all games in Games Explorer, select the
Details view from the Views menu. Scroll to the right to see the rating and the
content descriptors for a particular game.

If you use ESRB ratings to block games for a particular user, that
user’s Games Explorer will not display the content descriptors for blocked
games, puts Blocked in the Game Restrictions column, and displays a generic
"No" icon instead of the normal game icon. If you block a game using
Parental Control’s Allow and Block Specific Programs feature, a pop-up
warning is displayed when the user tries to run the blocked game (see Figure 10.2).

WEI Ratings and Vista Gaming

Any game that is fully compatible with Games Explorer displays several
Windows Experience Index (WEI) ratings in its Preview pane (refer to Figure 10.1). For the best game-play experience, the game recommended rating should be
less than or equal to the current system’s rating. However, as long as the
current system’s rating is at least equal to the game’s required
rating, you can play the game satisfactorily. If the rating falls below the
game’s requirements, you can still play it, but if you don’t like
it, tough!

NOTE

The highest possible rating for any subsystem when Vista was released was
5.9; higher ratings will be established as newer, faster components are released
in 2007 and beyond.

The WEI base score is generated automatically when you first install Windows
Vista and can be updated whenever internal system hardware, such as a new
graphics card, more RAM, or a new hard disk, is installed.

As you’ve probably figured out by now, Windows Vista’s favorite
letters are "X M L." So, it’s not surprising to discover that the
WEI ratings are stored as .xml files. Where are they? You’ll find them in
C:\ Windows\ Performance\ WinSAT\ Datastore.

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The use of ReadyBoost, which uses a USB flash memory drive to boost hard disk
performance through disk caching, isn’t reflected in WEI scores. However,
if your game performs a lot of disk access, ReadyBoost can help your real-world
performance. To learn more about using ReadyBoost, see Chapter 6, "Mastering
Your Hardware and Environment with Vista."

If you run Performance Information and Tools to update the WEI base score
after a hardware or driver upgrade, be sure to close the System properties sheet
and reopen it to refresh the WEI base score display with the latest
information.

To learn more about how Performance Information and the Windows Experience
Index work, see "Performance Information and Tools," Chapter 6, p. 129.

Minpaso Shows You How to Win

The Goga Minpaso website at
http://minpaso.goga.co.jp/
offers a downloadable Windows Sidebar gadget that collects WEI information from
your system using WinSAT and adds it to an online database you can search by
product name, processor name, GPU name, and in many other ways. You can also
review the highest scores in each category. By looking up systems with the
highest WEI rankings in each category and clicking the system to determine the
hardware in use, you can quickly determine what hardware has been tested to
provide the best performance according to WinSAT and the WEI. Figure 10.3 shows
how Minpaso displays the hardware in my FrankenPC custom-built computer before I
upgraded to a faster graphics card.

A review of the Minpaso database reveals these clues to world-beating
dominance (scores of 5.0 or higher in each category):

Use graphics cards based on PCI-Express x16 and the brand new DirectX
10-compatible GPUs available from NVIDIA (GeForce 8 series) or AMD’s ATI
division (X2xxx, also known as the R600 GPU family) to achieve best-in-class
gaming and Aero graphics scores and to be ready for the amazing realism that
DirectX 10 (available only for Windows Vista) provides. If you’re on a
budget and don’t mind sticking with DirectX 9 for now, consider
nVIDIA’s GeForce 7 series or ATI’s X19xx or X18xx series cards.

Figure 10.3 Quad-core CPUs from Intel or fast dual-core CPUs from either Intel
or AMD dominate systems with top processor scores. The fast single-core AMD
Athlon 64 FX-7x series and the dual-core AMD Opteron and Intel Xeon workstation
processors are also represented in the fastest processors tested.

Lots of RAM (2GB or greater) is the key to a high memory score.

For more about DirectX 10’s new features, see "DirectX 10, the
Future of Windows Gaming," p. 257, this chapter.

Playing and Managing Games

You can launch any game listed in Games Explorer by double-clicking it.
However, by right-clicking a game, you can take advantage of many additional
features that vary by game:

Home Page—This option’s a bit misleading. It may open the
Games for Windows home page or the game’s specific home page.

Support—Opens the support page provided by the game vendor. In the
case of a bundled game, you’ll go straight to the main Microsoft Help and
Support page.

Saved Games—Some games include a Save option. Select this option,
and you navigate to the Saved Games folder for the current user (see Figure 10.4). Select the game you want to continue, and it starts from where you left
off.

Pin to Start Menu—Why waste time opening the Games Explorer? Save a
couple of clicks.

Add to Quick Launch—Select this option, and you won’t even
need to use the Start menu to launch your game.

Hide This Game—Some games install two icons in Games Explorer. Use
this option to hide any additional games, or to declutter Games Explorer by
hiding games you prefer not to play.

Customize—Select this option and you can configure how the game is
played.

Note that when you select the Customize option from the right-click menu a
Customize menu appears. To change how your game plays, select Play (the first
option) and click Edit. This brings up the Play properties sheet for your
game.

Use the Shortcut tab (see Figure 10.5 A) to specify whether to run the game
maximized or in a window, change the game’s icon, or assign the game a
shortcut.

If you have problems running the game, open the Compatibility tab (see Figure 10.5 B). If the game was written for an older version of Windows, click the Run
This Program in Compatibility Mode For check box and select the appropriate
version of Windows. Use other settings as appropriate. If the game cannot run
because it needs greater access than normal, click the Run This Program as an
Administrator check box. These options can often overcome problems running games
that were designed before Vista came on the scene.

After making changes to these or other tabs, click Apply; then click OK to
use the changes immediately.

To learn more about using the Compatibility tab and the Program Compatibility
Wizard to run legacy games, see "Solving Problems with Legacy Games," p.
260, this chapter.

Although DirectX 9 is the basis for Windows Vista’s snazzy 3D Aero
desktop, the actual version of DirectX included with Windows Vista is the
long-awaited DirectX 10. DirectX 10 was built from the ground up, instead of
being an incremental upgrade from DirectX 9. DirectX 10 offers many advantages
compared to DirectX 9, the version found in Windows XP:

Unified shader architecture—DirectX 9 separated shaders into vertex
and pixel shaders, which could cause backlogs when one type of rendering was
more in demand in a particular scene. DirectX 10 supports unified shaders that
can be switched between vertex, pixel, and geometry shader operations
on-the-fly, eliminating bottlenecks and improving performance.

Shader Model 4.0—Drastically increases the power and precision
available for 3D rendering compared to previous shader models. For example,
Shader Model 4.0 includes more than 64,000 instruction slots, compared with 256
in DirectX 9’s Shader Model 2 and 512 in DirectX 9.0c’s Shader Model
3.0. The number of constant registers, temporary registers, textures, and other
features is also much greater in Shader Model 4.0. The result? More realistic 3D
rendering. The day you walk by a DirectX 10-rendered game playing on an HDTV and
think you’re watching a TV show, you’ll know what I mean.

Moving the rendering load from the CPU to the GPU—Various methods,
including substantial reductions in the command cycle counts needed to perform
common operations and new ways to control the appearance of similar objects with
a single draw call, make DirectX 10 more efficient than DirectX 9, resulting in
smoother, more realistic game play.

NOTE

Windows Vista includes an updated version of DirectX diagnostics
(dxdiag.exe). Use it to check the status of DirectX interfaces to your display,
audio, and input devices.

To start DirectX Diagnostics, click the Start orb and type
dxdiag into the search tool. When dxdiag appears in the list of
programs in the right pane, press Enter to run it.

DirectX 10 is fully compatible with earlier versions of DirectX, so you can
play existing DirectX games and use graphics cards that support older versions
of DirectX without difficulty. If you have problems with legacy games,
don’t blame DirectX!